Preparation and characterization of platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) nanoparticle decorated graphene sheets and their utilization for the elimination of basic fuchsin and indigo carmine dyes

• Graphene nano-sheets were successfully decorated with Pt and Pd nanoparticles.
• Microstructures of nanocomposites were characterized with XRD, SEM and TEM methods.
• Graphene-metal nanocomposites exhibited superior antioxidant activity (AOA).
• Nanocomposites can be used for the photocatalytic elimination of organic dyes.

In this study, graphene nano sheets, prepared with chemical oxidation and reduction routes via modified-Hummer method, were successfully decorated with platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) nanoparticles. Structural and morphological features of resulted graphene-metal nanocomposites were characterized with FT-IR, XRD, SEM and TEM methods. Anti-oxidant activity (AOA) values of nanocomposites were determined. The IC50 values of Pt-graphene and Pd-graphene nanocomposites were found to be 46.1 and 90.2 μg/mL, respectively based on the ABTS method and 80.2 and 143.7 μg/mL according to the DPPH method. It was found that the graphene-metal nanocomposites exhibited superior free radical scavenging activity compared to several types of noble metal nano particles although the nanocomposites consist of much lower amount of active metal sites than the nano-crystalline metal powders. It was consequently reported that the graphene-metal nanocomposites could be successfully used for the photocatalytic elimination of fuchsin and indigo carmine dyes under light irradiation.

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